Hamish Hawk’s latest album A Firmer Hand is here, and to celebrate, the Scottish singer-songwriter brought his witty lyricism and enchanting vocal performance to Nottingham’s Rough Trade for a good old-fashioned in-store gig...
Starting out just as the artist's new album does with Juliet as Epithet, the Rough Trade Nottingham audience were brought into the world of Hamish Hawk on a more ambient note, with reverberating synth waves and a soft percussive motif akin to water dropping. This one is delicate and moving, remembering (or perhaps beginning to forget) past relationships, setting a rich emotive atmosphere for the evening in the album’s spirit.
It’s quite hard to prescribe Hamish Hawk a genre, and he has himself rejected the idea of being placed within one in the past. One of the highlight tracks from the set, Big Cat Tattoos, provides a perfect case study as to why this is in the form of a deliciously funky bassline. There’s a real charming edge here and a slice of attitude to add that extra layer of fun.
The album, and as a result the set list, allowed for plenty of dynamic shifts, moving from wistfulness to sass to balladry. This firmer hand, as the album title suggests, continues through with Men Like Wire, which provides spiky indie-rock guitars and a punchy vulnerability that’s entirely capturing, while the poppier Nancy Dearest will surely become a fun sing-along moment as audience’s grow more and more familiar
with the song.
Towards the end of the set, Hawk dedicated Desperately from his 2023 album Angel Numbers to a member of the audience with a great big smile on his face as he sang for her. This was a particularly sweet gesture, and a lovely shared moment for the audience. If they hadn’t already been summoned to dance, despite the incredibly hot summer temperature within the room, they were at this point, with an indie riff so reminiscent of being out in a summer field that it was almost impossible not to twirl.
The Morrissey comparisons exist for a reason. Hawk's emotive and poetic writing and dramatic yet smooth crooner tones complement each other beautifully. His vocals are arresting, both when they bite and when they float through the air. Someone next to me summed up Hawk’s performance pretty well – “he’s incredible, all of this is coming straight from the heart.” Passion flows out of him on stage in an utterly theatrical manner, with charismatic stares and abstract movements. He looks as though he is at all times encompassed by his own music, which is why every drum line, every riff and every chord feel like they pass through him before they reach our ears. This is both a testament to his charisma and the cohesiveness and sleekness of his well-oiled band.
There’s still plenty more to get excited about with Hamish Hawk, and his new material will serve to strengthen his live sets no matter how evergreen old favourites like The Mauritian Badminton Doubles Champion 1973 are. That being said, singing along in unison to this hit felt like a magical way to end a lovely evening, especially in this small space.
Hamish Hawk performed at Rough Trade Nottingham on 18th August 2024.
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